Improved cutter-head for



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

E. L. PRATT, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO GEORGE R.

CARTER, OF SAME PLAGE.

IMPROVED CUTTER-HEAD FOR APPLE-PARERS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,216, dated October 6, 1863.

To all whom it may concern..-

Be it known that 1, E. L. PRATT, of Boston, in the county or Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improved Cutter- Head for Apple-Parers; and I do hereby declare that the following, taken in connection with the drawings which accompany and form part of this specification, is a description of my invention suhcient to enable those skilled in the art to practice it.

My invention consists in a new method or manner of applying and operating the cutterhead or knife-stock of appleparing'machines.

Itis shown in the accompanying drawings, Figure 1 of which represents a side elevation of an ordinary apple-paring machine embodying my improvement. Fig. 2 is a side view of the cutter-head, and Fig. 3 a section taken on the line x ofFig. 2.

A denotes the arm which carries the cutterhead, said arm being operated in the usual manner to carry the cutter circumferentially around or partially around the surface ofthe apple and from end to end thereof While the apple is rotated on its fork B. Odenotes the cutter-head, and D the knife, applied thereto in any suitable manner. From one end ofthe cutter head or stock, a tubular arm or projection, a., extends, the front end of the arm A fitting into this tube so as to sustain the cutter-head, as seen in Fig. 2, and allow it to turn freely on said arm. A coiled spring, b, is placed around the tube a, one end of the spring being fastened to the cutter-head, as seen at c, and the other end to the arm A, as seen at d. rl`his spring serves to confine the cutter-head to the arm A, and the tension of the spring, as the machine is operated, presses the knife-edge against the surface of the apupper surface or half of the apple, it turns on such a surface and brings successively, the part of its edge adjacent to the tube a, the central part of such edge, and finally the part farthest from the tube a, into contact with the apple. By this means the whole length ofthe knife is made to cut, and the apple is pared from its stem to its calyx.

In the cornrnon way of applying the cutterstock it is hung swiveling or loosely at or near its center to the arm A, the spring which draws the arm A against the apple being the only means of keeping the cutter in opera tion or against the apple surface. With the knife so applied only one point or portion of the edge thereof near the center of the knife, or in line with the arm to which it is applied, operates, the other parts of the knife swinging away from the surfaceof the apple. The result is that the part of the appleadjaccnt to the stein and calvx does not get pared, and the knife, from cutting only in one part, soon becomes dulled; but by hanging the cutterhead at oneof its ends, or opposite one end of its knife, to the stock, and applying the spring b thereto, as seen in the drawings, the knife is made to rock or turn as it moves over the surface of the apple, and to have its whole length brought against, and so as to operate upon, the surface of the apple, While, by so hanging it and causing the opposite ends of the knife to operate, I am also enabled to cut up to or nearly up to the axis of the apple or to the stem and calyX thereof; and, furthermore, the knife lasts or keeps sharpened or in cutting condition for a much greater length of time than when onlyone part of it is enabled to operate.

I claim- Hanging the cutter-head to the arm A, substantially as described, in connection with applying to it the spring b, in the manner and for the purpose as above set forth.

Executed by me this 11th day of September, A. 111863.

E. L. PRATT.

In presence of- J. B. CRosBY, FRANCIS GoULD. 

